The momentous drama of everyday life; the volatile connections between
people for those entangled in an adulterous affair; the wry, accurate take on families, marriage, and brittle middle
age. With The Forgotten Waltz Enright turns her attention to love,
following another unforgettable heroine on a journey of the heart.

Massie presents a reconstruction of the eighteenth-century empress's life that covers her efforts to engage Russia in the cultural life of Europe, her creation of the Hermitage, and her numerous scandal-free romantic affairs. SH

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Edited by David Travis, Karsh : Beyond the Camerais a retrospective of the famous photographer's career spanning 50 years. The black and white collection is spellbinding even in its reproduction due to Karsh' expert use of light and setting in the pre-digital age.Travis, former Curator of Photography at the Art Institute of Chicago, draws on several hours of taped recollections between Karsh and Jerry Fiedler, his longtime assistant, of portrait sessions which have previously been unreleased. These narratives, paired with each photograph, reveal the photographer's psychological insight and personal thoughts about his subjects.
Yousuf Karsh was born in Turkey in 1908 and was a survivor of the Armenian genocide before escaping to Canada. The memories of the horrors he witnessed as a boy remained with him all his life.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Neil Armstrongthe first man to walk on the Moon has died at the age of 82. Remember the race to the Moon with these books.

John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon by John M. LogsdonJFK actively involved himself in space decisions and several times reviewed his decision to go to the Moon, each time concluding that the benefits of being the leader in space outweighed the massive costs of the lunar landing enterprise. Logsdon traces the evolution of JFK’s thinking and policy up until his assassination

The Race: The Uncensored Story of How America Beat Russia to the Moon by James L. Schefter The messy and glorious saga of the golden years of the American space program, told in never-before-revealed detail by a man who was there. Life reporter Schefter could not write a fraction of what he saw then for PR reasons.Now, at last, he can tell it all.

One Giant Leap: Apollo 11 Remembered by Piers BizonyThe first moon landing in July 1969 captured the imagination of the world as no subsequent "space spectacular" has. Forty years later, space historian Piers Bizony has produced a stunning visual record of this unparalleled mission.

The Book of the Moon by Rick Stroud To celebrate the fortieth anniversary of man's first steps on the moon, a visually striking cornucopia of everything worth knowing about our closest neighbor in space.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

"History as a laboratory rich
in a hundred thousand experiments in economics,
religion, literature, science, and government –
history as our roots and our illumination, as the
road by which we came and the only light that can
clarify the present and guide us into the future." "It is, as Napoleon said on St. Helena, “the only
true philosophy and the only true psychology.”

This account by the Italian historian stands apart from previous
histories by giving voice to all the nationalities that took part in the
titanic and bloody struggle, invoking the memories of British, French, and
Prussian soldiers.

Bell exposes the surprising parallels between Napoleon's day and our
own -- including the way that ambition "wars of liberation," such as
the one in Iraq, can degenerate into a gruesome guerrilla conflict.

Historian Charles
Esdaile argues that the chief motivating factor for Napoleon was his insatiable
desire for fame and portrays Europe’s infighting as the consequence of rulers
who were willing to take the immense risks of either fighting or supporting
Napoleon.

Lavishly illustrated, this volume includes rare and previously
unpublished material, not only on Napoleon's military victories but also on his
innovations in government, banking, universal education, a well organized code
of law, public museums, and an efficient civil service.

The Battle of Austerlitz was Napoleon's crowing victory. It was also
the beginning of his downfall. Historian Alistair Horne chronicles the rise and
fall of Napoleon, drawing parallels with other great leaders of the modern
era.

A fresh examination of Russian military archives only open to
Western researchers since 1991, Lieven provides the first-ever history of the longest
military campaign in European history told from the Russian perspective.

A
major general in the British army uses three campaigns - Napoleon's first
campaign in Italy, the conquest of Prussia in 1806, and the Battle of the
Nations in 1813 - to analyze Napoleon’s generalship.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

In 1965 Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Penn Warren published Who Speaks for the Negro? Warren, a white southerner, interviewed a few dozen people influential in the struggle for civil rights and published the interviews in the book. His tapes of the interviews, recorded on his reel-to-reel tape recorder, are now available digitally from Vanderbilt University. They are no less than fascinating. Here are Martin Luther King, Robert Moses and Adam Clayton Powell speaking in offices or living rooms--not from the pulpit or stage. Here are James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison speaking in conversation rather than from the pages of their books. And Warren is no slouch himself. Listen to him spar with Malcolm X on the culpability of individual White people (however well-meaning) for the oppression of Blacks. (And listen too, to James Farmer's put down of Malcolm as a talker, not a doer.) The interviewees include-- in addition to the who's who of top leaders--rank and file activists, women, and white sympathizers.If you have any interest at all in the Civil Rights Movement in the US, you will surely appreciate these recordings.(Thanks to the ResearchBuzz blog for the recommendation.)
--RL

Monday, August 6, 2012

Rollins brings
together a team of elite operatives, a holy treasure (the staff of Jesus
Christ) that was uncovered by a Templar knight, Somali pirates, a kidnapping of
a mother and her unborn child, and a centuries-old conspiracy to manipulate our
genetic code to weave a story that leaves you anxious to see what happens next.

I listened to the book on cd and the reader is excellent. Believe me, this book is
anything but boring! SH

In the parallel world aliens terraformed Mars (and Venus) two hundred million years
ago, seeding them with life-forms from Earth. By the year 2000, America, Russia, and the other
great powers of Earth are all contending for influence and power amid
the newly-discovered inhabitants of our sister planets. On Mars, early hominids evolved civilization
earlier than their earthly cousins, driven by the needs of a harsh world
growing still harsher as the initial terraforming runs down. Now, in a new stand-alone adventure set in
this world's 2000 AD, Jeremy Wainman is an archaeologist who has
achieved a lifelong dream; to travel to Mars and explore the dead cities
of the Deep Beyond, searching for the secrets of the Kings Beneath the
Mountain and the fallen empire they ruled.

The first three John Carter of Mars books in a
100th anniversary edition. Ever since A Princess of Mars was published
in 1912, readers of all ages have read and loved Edgar Rice Burroughs'
Barsoom series. Still fun even after 100 years.

First the Mars probe picked up an anomaly. Then NASA saw some strange
activity, and many stargazers noticed meteorites rocketing towards
earth. A cylinder surreptitiously landed in Wisconsin, then another, and
another. The War of the Worlds had
begun. Niles follows in the great tradition
of Wells' original masterpiece. As tripods leave a swath
of destruction across the Americas, Washington groups some of its great
minds to solve the problem as the Pentagon throws at the invaders the
latest hardware the military has to offer. At stake is the survival of
the human race and the dominion of planet earth. A
Clancy like
techno-thriller.

What if Wells witnessed something that spurred him to write The War of
the Worlds not as entertainment but as a warning to the complacent
people of Earth? International bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson,
writing here as Gabriel Mesta, explores that tantalizing theory in this
unique, thrilling novel that expertly evokes the Victorian era. From
drafty London flats to the steamy Sahara, to the surface of the moon and
beyond, The Martian War takes the reader on an exhilarating journey
with Wells and his companions -- and is pure delight from start to
finish.

Henry Steegman is hardly "Mr. Personality" aboard the Mars-bound
Algonquin 9. Yet it is he who bungles upon the spectacular Macy's-like
city beneath the Red Planet's crust. For better or worse, the name
Steegman will be immortalized by a discovery that will transform
millions of lives. A collection of connected stories which investigate
the impact the discovery of life on Mars has on the everyday life of
humans.